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Saturday, August 17, 2019

What's Beneath the Surface?

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HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Mary Anna Evan’s first published work, her
master’s thesis, was entitled A Modeling Study of the NH3-NO-O2 Reaction Under
the Operating Conditions of a Fluid Bed Combustor. Like her future mysteries, I’m
told it was a page turner, but unlike her beloved novels, its not available on
line. She turned from engineering to fiction after the birth of her third
child, shifting her focus from managing hazardous wastes to preparing balanced
meals.

So, you know how much I love it when Jungle Red weeks evolve into
a theme. Earlier this week, we went, via a book, to Prague. Today, we go, via
Mary Anna Evans, to Oklahoma.

When I sit down to write about my archaeologist protagonist, Dr.
Faye Longchamp-Mantooth, I always begin by choosing an interesting place with a
little-known history. I think that spending the time to create an immersive
setting for my stories pays off when I ask my readers to believe that likable,
relatable Faye has found herself embroiled in a life-or-death adventure yet
again.

I already knew that Oklahoma City was an interesting place when I
began my historical research. Its casual cowboy culture contrasts with a
modern, cosmopolitan vibe that might surprise people who have never been there,
but my research uncovered something fascinating. In the early twentieth
century, a community numbering perhaps into the hundreds lived underneath the
city. This community consisted of Chinese immigrants who came to the United
States to build the railroads, as well as their descendants, and they moved
underground because of bigotry that relegated them to low-paying jobs and
undesirable basement apartments. It is thought that they began by digging into
the earth around their apartments, enlarging them, but that those burrows
eventually connected to form a network of underground chambers where the
community lived for decades.

If you are thinking that these catacombs must be an urban legend,
please know that records exist from a 1921 health department inspection that
pronounced the underground community to be “sanitary as all get out.” As
further empirical proof of the underground community’s existence, photographs
exist from a 1969 excavation that accidentally uncovered a staircase leading
down to the old catacombs.

Oral history tells of community features that are hard to fathom
in such a setting—a Buddhist temple, electric lights, mushroom growing
operations that supplied topside restaurants, even a cemetery—but how can we
ever know whether these things existed or not? The entrance uncovered in 1969
was promptly sealed again, allowing us to imagine anything down there that our
hearts desire.

When I saw those photographs taken just days before the entrance
was sealed, I knew that Faye would be fascinated by the people who once lived
under Oklahoma City. It was only a matter of time before Catacombs began
to take shape.

THE OKC mayor looking at a stove in one of the tunnels

Since moving to Oklahoma, which encompasses the area once called
Indian Territory, I’ve had the chance to enjoy arts indigenous to this area,
including the Indian flutes that figure so largely into the storyline of Catacombs. Setting the book at a conference celebrating indigenous arts gave me the
opportunity to show off the flintknapping skills of Faye’s partner in crime,
Joe Wolf Mantooth, giving my readers the chance to vicariously enjoy
traditional arts including food, music, and basketry. When a bomb puts all of
these artists and art-lovers in danger, the blast uncovers the old underground
structures left behind by the Chinese community and the pressure on Faye kicks
into overdrive.

a photo from Atlas Obscura of the OKC tunnels

The FBI taps into her knowledge of archaeology and history as it
tries to understand who detonated the bomb and why. They are navigating an
emotional minefield left behind by the trauma of the 1995 terrorist bombing of
Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh. The people traumatized by that day need
desperately to know who has mounted this second attack and they need for that
person to be caught. They need to know that this will never happen again.

Faye feels this pressure acutely. To solve this crime, she is
willing to explore a century-old network of storm drains that just might lead
her to the answers she needs. She is willing to descend into a warren of
abandoned rooms where anything might wait for her. And she is willing to put
her life on the line to catch the bomber.

HANK: In the small world department, I was the anchor on duty at
my TV station when a producer ran into my office and said—there’s been a bomb explosion
in Oklahoma City. Get on the air and talk about it. I said—what happened? And
she said—we don’t know!Just get on the
air and stall until we find out.

But—back to the topic at hand—doesn’t this book sound terrific?

And whoa. What might be down there? And how could hey engineer
that? What do you think should be done?

And a copy of CATACOMBSto
one lucky commenter!

From MARY ANNA EVANS:I'm the author of the award-winning Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries: ARTIFACTS, RELICS, EFFIGIES, FINDINGS, FLOODGATES, STRANGERS, PLUNDER, RITUALS, and ISOLATION. My other fiction includes several short stories, available separately as ebooks, and as a collection in both ebook and print form, called JEWEL BOX: SHORT WORKS BY MARY ANNA EVANS. My most recent publications are nonfiction, a departure for me. YOUR NOVEL, DAY BY DAY: A FICTION WRITER'S COMPANION is available for novelists in both ebook and print form. I am also the co-author, with Dr. Faith Wallace, of MATHEMATICAL LITERACY IN THE MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL GRADES: A MODERN APPROACH TO SPARKING STUDENT INTEREST, available in print from Pearson.

I'm a university professor of writing, and I'm also a chemical engineer by training and license, with a degree in engineering physics thrown in for spice, but I love reading about history and writing about an archaeologist. Truth be told, I'm a little jealous of Faye and her archaeological adventures.

96 comments:

Oh, Mary Anna, this is so intriguing. I am really looking forward to reading your story.

Did they simply seal up the entrance to the catacombs or did they do some exploring? I can see how not knowing what’s there would be perfect for writers spinning tales of intrigue, but I’d hope some careful exploration took place, just like they’d do with any other archaeological find. Just think what we could learn . . . .

Some people went down and looked around a few rooms, taking pictures that were published in the newspaper, but it was sealed up within days. I imagine there was strong motivation to avoid slowing down the convention construction that uncovered it in the first place. But now they're tearing down that convention center and redeveloping downtown, so maybe they'll uncover it again!

What a fascinating find those catacombs are, Mary Anna. I can't believe that historians and archaeologists didn't demand a further exploration of the accidental find. I am looking forward to discovering what your imagination creates for us. I love stories with archeological connections, and I can't believe that I'm just learning about you and this series. Looks like I have some catching up to do. I'm delighted, too, that this book is set in Oklahoma, as I've not read much about it, and I always enjoy learning about new places. The fact that the community in the catacombs consisted of Chinese, especially Chinese railroad workers, is another interesting aspect for me. In the recent television show Hell on Wheels, which dealt with the western expansion of the railroad, the Chinese workers and community is an integral part of the story.

Also, I must say how interesting it is that you started out in engineering and then came to writing and being a professor of writing. Quite a lot of which to be proud.

Thanks, Kathy! Honestly, the voices of historians and archaeologists aren't always heard when big dollars are involved. The underground rooms were discovered during a very expensive and politically important construction project--a convention center--so they would have been speaking against the wheels of progress. Coincidentally, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requiring Environmental Impact Statements was passed that same year. Also coincidentally, when I was a practicing engineer, I worked for an environmental consulting firm that did Environmental Impact Statements and they do require impacts of cultural resources to be considered. I presume that NEPA would have required some degree of investigation of those catacombs but they were uncovered just a bit too early for that kind of legal protection.

Ah, politics won over cultural significance, and, of course, timing is everything. Once again, I must say that your education and job history is so interesting. We readers are fortunate you've chosen to write stories now, too, as your knowledge and experience is sure to form a solid foundation for those stories.

Catacombs sounds fascinating, Mary Anna! I had no idea about the underground communities. And Hank, how on earth did you manage to report on news without being given any info? Talk about being put on the spot!

I can't imagine having to improvise on the air like that, Hank! The Oklahoma City bombing is one of those events that was so shocking that you remember where you were when you heard about it. People here have told me that they felt it many, many miles away. I was in Florida with no notion that I'd ever live in Oklahoma. I was still working for the environmental consulting firm and I was five months pregnant. I had just arrived for a board of directors meeting and the company president told us about the bombing as soon as we sat down.

If any of you are ever in Oklahoma City, I encourage you to visit the memorial, which is a beautiful and moving outdoor art installation, and the museum, which is considered one of the best in the country. A word of warning--you will weep before you leave.

I was in Oklahoma City on the one-year anniversary of the bombing, as a speaker and vendor at a sewing show. There were still buildings downtown that had not yet been torn down, and the mood in the area was just utterly somber. The show was a bust, very poorly attended, but I met a couple who came both days. Later, I found out that the man was one of the first responders on the scene, and even later, that he had committed suicide. I will never forget the zombie stare in his eyes.

As an archaeologist who loves mysteries, can't imagine how I've missed your series! And the 1969 accidental discovery of the catacombs would have been just before a spate of historical preservation laws at the federal and state levels--so safety was probably uppermost in everyone's mind when the entrance was sealed again. But, wow! An underground Chinese community in Oklahoma?! Who knew?? Can't wait to get acquainted with Faye.

Absolutely fascinating! Why were they sealed up in the first place; was it out of respect or what? Do you think they will ever be opened and explored? So many possibilities! Can't wait to this, Mary Anna!

Honestly, I think they just didn't want to delay construction of the convention center and they didn't understand how historically interesting the underground rooms were. I wish they'd taken more photos, though. And maybe they did, but only a few were published and the rest aren't archived anywhere that I've found. Unfortunately, they may have been lost.

Welcome Mary Ann, and congratulations on the newest book. I've ordered it but not sure I can deal with another OKC bombing. I attended the first one, you see. I was coming into my office downtown when the Murrah Building blew up.

It was an experience I can barely stand to think about twenty-four years later. I was director of a hospice, got on the phone and cancelled all nursing visits that weren't absolutely necessary, and dispersed my staff to the local hospitals, the ones who hadn't already taken themselves to the scene. Our medical director was the first doctor to arrive. My office was on the seventh floor, and I had a view of the destruction. Sometime later that day all the people burst in, carrying cameras and electronic equipment. They needed access to the roof of the building. It was the CNN crew.

A few years ago I returned to OKC and went to the monument. It is most poignant, all those chairs. Empty. And some so small.

So I will give the book a try, but it might be too much for me. Some occasions aren't for reliving.

Oh, wow. Thanks for sharing your experience, Ann. It was such a terrible, tragic day. I tried to be very respectful of the real bombing, and one way I did that was to make this one very different. (Here come some mild spoilers, but they only apply to the first chapter, so stop reading if that bothers you.) In CATACOMBS, the bombing that kicks off the book is much smaller than the Murrah bombing and only the bomber is killed. The tension comes from the fear that another one might be coming, which Faye and the FBI are trying very hard to avoid. And in the background is the fact that OKC is full of people who remember what you remember. It's a city that just can't take another blow like that one, and it shouldn't have to. As a newcomer to Oklahoma, I have to say that it's a really great place. This is my second book set here, after BURIALS in 2017, which is set in a rural area in eastern Oklahoma and involves an excavation that uncovers something extremely unexpected. If CATACOMBS isn't for you, you may prefer that one.

We may have been separated at birth Mary Anna. My great aunt, Vera Holding, taught creative writing at OU decades ago, and my granddaughter, Sarah, is working on her PhD in anthropology/archaeology, the peopling of the Americas. Much of my family originated in Oklahoma, back when it was a territory. But for the politics, I could live there happily.

Welcome to JRW Mary Anna--this is an astonishing story! It makes me immediately want to find out more about the people who lived there and how they lived there. They must have been feeling so desperate to dig these tunnels...

I agree wholeheartedly, Lucy. And yet I think there also might have been a feeling of empowerment. "So you won't rent me a decent apartment? Well, bleep you. I can take care of myself, thank you very much." I love it that the health department went down there expecting to find a festering morass and came back saying that it was as "sanitary as all get out." It made me want to stand up and cheer for those people.

So fascinating! Who knows, with global warming, maybe people will go back to living underground. They'd been Those 'catacombs' reminded me of the defunct subway tunnels that run under Riverside Park in NYC where homeless people have found refuge.

It seems logical that they'd have been able to build underground ... after all they were originally railroad builders.

I hope I'm not repeating myself, Hallie, because I responded to this earlier today and the blog software ate my comment. Twice! But yes, they were originally railroad builders and their expertise showed. If you check the black-and-white photo above, you can the see the conduit pipe they used to bring electricity below-ground. They had electric lights! I spitefully hope that they tapped into the electrical lines of someone who had been part of making their lives heck, as it makes me happy to think of somebody like that paying for their electricity. :)

Mary Anna, this is fascinating. Thank you for sharing this with the world. Sounds like your book is a must read!

This is the third underground place I've read or heard about in the US. Atlanta has an underground mall near the convention center, where people once lived. And Seattle has one, as well, covered over with glass ceilings strong and thick enough to drive over, where their red light district was decades ago. I've been to the one in Atlanta, but not the one in Seattle.

Karen, when I was researching this book, I kept coming across more and more underground places. I saw the ones you mention and San Francisco. Paris and Rome have underground areas that go far beyond the famous catacombs. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC had a fascinating article about fifteen years ago about exploring underneath Rome, including in its famed ancient sewer, the Cloaca Maxima. At the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome, you can go down to another cathedral beneath it, then to a temple of Mithras beneath that, then to a house beneath that. And all the while you can hear running water in the Cloaca Maxima. I've been there and it's fascinating. http://www.basilicasanclemente.com/ita/

Hi everyone! Everything is a little crazy around here this morning! And I love this story so much… I will look for photos and see if I can post them on the blog a little later, OK? And I will talk about the broadcast day, too :-) back in a little while

That's what I try to do with this series. I find a little nook or cranny of history, then I send my fictional archaeologist to check it out! In FLOODGATES, I used a post-Katrina setting to show the history of all the engineering it has taken to build and maintain the critical port at New Orleans that we needed at the mouth of the Mississippi. In RITUALS, I looked at the history of spiritualism and the women's movement. Doing the research for my books is half the fun!

Oh, Cathy, you know exactly how hard it is! I try to organize my time very strictly, keeping days that are just for teaching, grading, and office hours, and other days that are just for writing. It helps that my university recognizes my novels as the publications I need for tenure and promotion. Still, when meetings or service responsibilities happen on my writing days, I must go. And when papers have to be graded and classes have to be planned, the writing has to wait. Fortunately, writing is also my recreation. I need it for my mental health, so I find a way.

Fascinating is the word that keeps popping up in the comments, but no other one seems to fit as well. I want to go exploring! Why and when did the community leave? I hope it was because of better opportunity above-ground, but suspect it was an ouster.

We don't know why they left or exactly when. The people were probably gone by mid-century, probably the 1950s. I like to think that they were able to earn enough money to afford better lodgings, but there's no way to know. I mention in the book that living conditions for everybody changed so much in those years. When the community went underground in the early 1900s, I'm not sure that electricity and indoor plumbing was universal, but even the most modest apartment would have had those things in 1950. It would have been a whole new world.

I live there now, Ann, and I’m quite liberal. It’s very easy to ignore the state-wide politics, especially if you live near the University. It’s not in your face at all. And remember, OKC elected a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018!

Absolutely fascinating. I love watching Time Team and see all those men and women, young and old, digging in the dirt and then they haul in the coin expert who looks at a tiny piece of metal and opines as to its origin. And one guy who is always hoping to find a Saxon site - I think he's hoping for another Sutton Hoo. It's amazing how the piece all those rocks and coins and fiber and wood splinters into a story. Could be fiction. I don't care. It's absolutely fascinating.

Oh, this book sounds fascinating, Mary Anna. I had no idea there was an underground community beneath Oklahoma City. It's a shame they were sealed to build the convention center. How interesting it would have been to be able to tour them. My curiosity is definitely peaked. Looking forward to reading the book!

They're tearing the convention center down after fifty years. The new one will be elsewhere and that part of downtown will be redeveloped. I'm hoping against hope that they uncover the underground city in the process!

Mary Anna, hi from not-so-far-away Dallas! You post is absolutely fascinating (that word again!) and I love the whole concept of the series. I am dying to read Catacombs, but wonder if I should start at the beginning of the series for the character development?

Hi, Deborah, from not-so-far-away Okahoma! I write my books so that they can be read in any order, so feel free to dive in with Catacombs. I'm guessing you'll be at Bouchercon in Dallas this fall. I'm really looking forward to it!

I'm picturing my kids' response to their mom as a rockstar. Hahahahahahahahaha....

Yes, I write them so they can be read in any order, so diving straight into Catacombs works just fine.

Speaking of unpredictable life, a semi knocked down the telephone pole that brings electricity into our neighborhood. If my responses here seem to come in flurries, that's why. Some of these responses came from home before the electrical disaster. Some of them came from Starbucks. Some of them came from my cell phone at a restaurant and in my car. And I am now broadcasting from the Norman Public Library until the electricity renders my internet connection usable. (And my A/C! It's supposed to be 100 F this afternoon. Ack!) If any Normanites are reading this, come see me at the library, where we have found a lovely reading room with cushy chairs. And A/C.

If you scroll down here, you'll see that same photo, but also a picture of Chinese-language flyers that were tacked to the wall down there. There was also a map of the US, but I've never seen a photo of that. https://www.405magazine.com/October-2012/Urban-Archaeologist/

I could swear that I've seen a photo that looks down the staircase but it seems to have evaporated from the internet.

Everyone has commented on the utterly fascinating blend of archaeology and history, so I'll express my admiration for your position at OU. For those of you who don't know, The University of Oklahoma has one of the oldest masters programs in creative writing in the US, and was certainly the first - and for a long time only - program to focus on commercial fiction. OU has produced some amazing authors, and, unlike some other midwestern university writing programs we could all name, continues to support fiction, nonfiction and screenplays that people actually want to buy and read.

When I teach creative writing, long-time OU professor Jack Bickham's book SCENE AND STRUCTURE is still one of my go-tos.

Hi, Julia! Don't you teach at the University of Maine? I feel so lucky to be here at Oklahoma. You're right that it's a very old program with a distinguished history. My colleague, Deborah Chester, came through our program when Jack Bickham and Dwight Swain were teaching here, and she teaches their approach to genre fiction writing.

I'd actually love to sit in on her classes, if I only had the time. I came at this business backward, teaching myself how to write out of books and basically just learning by doing. Then I went back to graduate school after seven books to learn how to do what I was already doing, as it were. I got my MFA from a literary program, so I feel like I take the best of what I learned there and mix it up with what I've learned as a crime novelist so that I can use it all to help my students grow.

My grandmother (Dad's mother) was a born in Oklahoma, in Kay county. That family's name is Cagle. Her father and uncle were part of the Cherokee Strip Land Race. Her older sister, Edris, the person in their family to still be in the state, died in the 1980's. Grandma was very proud to be from Oklahoma but I have always been grateful that she was not alive in 1995. The bombing would have destroyed her even though she was living in California.

As much as Grandma was proud to be from Oklahoma, she only really talked about her area, not the whole state. I can honestly say she was prejudiced which is not something I am proud of, I make no excuses, just acknowledge the fact. Reading about an underground city created in order to survive prejudice in Oklahoma adds to my knowledge of her time and culture.

I'm adding you to my list and can't wait to read about Oklahoma and the underground world of Oklahoma City. I don't often share titles with my sister, our tastes are so different, but I think she will like this book.

I'm from Mississippi, Deana, which has a similarly troubled history around race. I think that's one reason I write what I do, although I don't think any writer can really say where their stories come from. My series character, Faye Longchamp, is biracial and many of the books deal with her experience and her family's experience. Since the books are about archaeology, I can reach back into history and take a look at how we got where we are and how we, hopefully, can move on. I hope you and your sister both enjoy Catacombs.

That's so cool! I'm from Hattiesburg, about ninety miles south of there. A dear friend whom I met later, while we were both living in Florida, told me about hitchhiking across the country from California in 1969 just after college graduation. He spent a bit of time in Jackson and also in Fayette, where he met Medgar Evers' brother Charles and other civil rights leaders. My favorite part of the story is the part where he sits with them in Charles Evers' home and watches the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Hi Mary Anna, I cant wait to read your book! I’m from Oregon, and there’s an underground city beneath Pendleton. I’ve always wanted to see it. There are tours available. It was discovered in the 1989’s.

I did not know any of this about Oklahoma’s underground city. I am from New York and have always been fascinated by the NY Subway system. That these things were built when electricity was so elemental and rudimentary is amazing. I will look for Catacombs.

Looking at the illustration of the book cover, did anyone else think of the old hotel where Malice Domestic was held for so long? The subway went under the hotel, and the ballrooms were very far below the subway, which is why it took forever for the elevators to get down there.

It always creeped me out to be in that area, especially before they opened the doors to the ballroom for the banquet. I had the most disquieting feeling of concern.

Thanks Mary Anna for this story about a community and events I was completely unaware of, where reality blurs with fiction so much.

I wonder why the landlords allowed the Chinese community to dig such an extensive underground network of rooms and structures below their properties, with entrances that presumably went through the properties and the building above the ground. Did the landlords charge those people some sort of rent or other fees?

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